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Coach Hunt steps down as BV head volleyball coach
By By Jill Meier
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EmailMarch 05. 2010 9:33AM
Brandon Valley will have a new head volleyball coach beginning with the 2010 season.
Last month, Kathy Hunt, who’s coached 12 years at Brandon Valley and 27 total years in her career, elected to give up her head coaching duties but will continue to teach high school physical education and health at Brandon Valley.
Hunt said she shared the news with her coaching staff prior to the start of the 2009 season and made it official at the school board’s Feb. 8 meeting.
The veteran volleyball coach said it was simply time for a change.
“I have been coaching since my first year out of college,” she said. “There is so much more to coaching than just planning practices and my energy level was starting to wane.”
Hunt said she’s reached the point where she no longer wants to spend her entire summer in the gym.
“As coaches we strongly encourage the kids to commit themselves to a summer regimen to prepare for the fall season. I feel the coaches should also make that same commitment,” she said. “I love the game of volleyball. It has been part of my life for over half my lifetime so it was an emotional decision, but one I am very comfortable with making.”
Hunt leaves an impressive mark on high school volleyball in South Dakota. This past season, she notched her 500th career victory when the Lynx defeated Yankton during district tournament play. She is one of six high school volleyball coaches in the state to have reached that milestone.
Brandon Valley Athletic Director Randy Marso has cited Hunt as “one of the pioneers of volleyball coaching.”
“The number of years she has put into volleyball and to stay with it,” Marso said, “there aren’t that many coaches that stay with it, and that’s a great testament.”
In 2008, Hunt was one of the first four to be inducted into the South Dakota Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. She was inducted with Galen Busch of Todd County, Connie Nyhaug of Viborg, and Ruth Rehn of Pierre.
“To be inducted with the group that I was inducted with was an honor in itself,” Hunt said. Rehn, she said, was literally the driving force behind girls’ athletics in South Dakota.
Twenty-seven years ago when Hunt first started coaching high school volleyball, the sport was relatively “new” to South Dakota female athletes.
“I was able to be on the ground level of helping develop and implement things like the all-state formats, all-state academic formats, cross-bracketing and the season change from winter to fall,” said Hunt, who has served as president of the SDVCA. “As president of the association, I was involved with organizing some of the first volleyball specific coaching clincs that we have each spring. I have also spent time as an AA representative, which allowed me to be involved with rule changes and policy changes at the state level.”
In her 27 years of coaching high school volleyball, Hunt, who coached 16 years at Sioux Falls O’Gorman, led the Knights to five state championship matches, winning titles in 1987, 1988 and 1989. While at Brandon Valley, Hunt guided the team to two state tournament appearances. The Lady Lynx placed sixth in 2000 and eighth in 2002.
Coty (Fitts) McGuire has come to know Hunt as a coach, as a mentor and now as a peer. She played for Hunt in 2000, one of two years the Lynx made it to the state tournament, and said her coach was very passionate about the game.
“I think she taught me that you need to be passionate and love what you are doing,” said McGuire, coach of the Lynx freshman team.
While Hunt admits she’s looking forward to her first summer of freedom in 27 years, there are some things she’s sure that she’s going to miss.
“I have always enjoyed watching the growth of the athletes,” she said. “It is fun to watch them develop as athletes from their freshman year into young adults their senior year. It is often surprising who actually steps up to be the leaders and who is willing to take on that leadership role and who shies away from it.”
Hunt said she’s also been fortunate to work with “some pretty neat kids with great personalities” and knows she'll feel a void next fall.
“While I will miss the intensity of being on the sidelines I am looking forward to watching from a different vantage point and not have to analyze who is doing what and where they should have been. I have made many great friends through coaching and I will miss collaborating with them,” she said.
Last month, Kathy Hunt, who’s coached 12 years at Brandon Valley and 27 total years in her career, elected to give up her head coaching duties but will continue to teach high school physical education and health at Brandon Valley.
Hunt said she shared the news with her coaching staff prior to the start of the 2009 season and made it official at the school board’s Feb. 8 meeting.
The veteran volleyball coach said it was simply time for a change.
“I have been coaching since my first year out of college,” she said. “There is so much more to coaching than just planning practices and my energy level was starting to wane.”
Hunt said she’s reached the point where she no longer wants to spend her entire summer in the gym.
“As coaches we strongly encourage the kids to commit themselves to a summer regimen to prepare for the fall season. I feel the coaches should also make that same commitment,” she said. “I love the game of volleyball. It has been part of my life for over half my lifetime so it was an emotional decision, but one I am very comfortable with making.”
Hunt leaves an impressive mark on high school volleyball in South Dakota. This past season, she notched her 500th career victory when the Lynx defeated Yankton during district tournament play. She is one of six high school volleyball coaches in the state to have reached that milestone.
Brandon Valley Athletic Director Randy Marso has cited Hunt as “one of the pioneers of volleyball coaching.”
“The number of years she has put into volleyball and to stay with it,” Marso said, “there aren’t that many coaches that stay with it, and that’s a great testament.”
In 2008, Hunt was one of the first four to be inducted into the South Dakota Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. She was inducted with Galen Busch of Todd County, Connie Nyhaug of Viborg, and Ruth Rehn of Pierre.
“To be inducted with the group that I was inducted with was an honor in itself,” Hunt said. Rehn, she said, was literally the driving force behind girls’ athletics in South Dakota.
Twenty-seven years ago when Hunt first started coaching high school volleyball, the sport was relatively “new” to South Dakota female athletes.
“I was able to be on the ground level of helping develop and implement things like the all-state formats, all-state academic formats, cross-bracketing and the season change from winter to fall,” said Hunt, who has served as president of the SDVCA. “As president of the association, I was involved with organizing some of the first volleyball specific coaching clincs that we have each spring. I have also spent time as an AA representative, which allowed me to be involved with rule changes and policy changes at the state level.”
In her 27 years of coaching high school volleyball, Hunt, who coached 16 years at Sioux Falls O’Gorman, led the Knights to five state championship matches, winning titles in 1987, 1988 and 1989. While at Brandon Valley, Hunt guided the team to two state tournament appearances. The Lady Lynx placed sixth in 2000 and eighth in 2002.
Coty (Fitts) McGuire has come to know Hunt as a coach, as a mentor and now as a peer. She played for Hunt in 2000, one of two years the Lynx made it to the state tournament, and said her coach was very passionate about the game.
“I think she taught me that you need to be passionate and love what you are doing,” said McGuire, coach of the Lynx freshman team.
While Hunt admits she’s looking forward to her first summer of freedom in 27 years, there are some things she’s sure that she’s going to miss.
“I have always enjoyed watching the growth of the athletes,” she said. “It is fun to watch them develop as athletes from their freshman year into young adults their senior year. It is often surprising who actually steps up to be the leaders and who is willing to take on that leadership role and who shies away from it.”
Hunt said she’s also been fortunate to work with “some pretty neat kids with great personalities” and knows she'll feel a void next fall.
“While I will miss the intensity of being on the sidelines I am looking forward to watching from a different vantage point and not have to analyze who is doing what and where they should have been. I have made many great friends through coaching and I will miss collaborating with them,” she said.
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Kathy Hunt, Brandon Valley's head volleyball coach for the past 12 years, has stepped down from those duties. Hunt, pictured in November of 2008, was one of four seleced to the inaugural South Dakota Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Challenger file photo |  |
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